It’s Duo Day! All three of our top contenders this week are teams of two. If your taste runs to authentic, nostalgic country music I urge you to seek out Keeping Up Appearances by Texas-based label-mates Amber Digby and Justin Trevino. It does my heart good to hear that somebody is still making music this pure and fine.

I don’t really have a Song of the Day category, but maybe I should. Dave Gibson’s “King Me,” Donna Beasley’s “Under the Rushes” and Flynnville Train’s “Preachin’ to the Choir” are all excellent examples of song craftsmanship.

Acclaimed Nashville vocal stylist Tracy Nelson lost her house and most of her belongings in a fire last Saturday (6/5). According to friend JoAnne Gardner, Nelson’s home studio was destroyed. It was where she was recording an upcoming CD titled Victim of the Blues. Nelson, her boyfriend/engineer Mike Dysinger and most of their pets are […]

At first, I was certain that Eric Church was going to coast off with yet another Disc of the Day award. Then I heard Danny Gokey hit that climactic tenor note at the finale of his stunning ballad and decided that, no, THIS was the performance du jour. Next, the Randy Rogers Band came galloping in with an uptempo tune and snatched the prize away from Danny. Then, at the very end of the listening session, Steel Magnolia came up to the plate.

There is some solid stuff in this stack of platters. Richie Fields, Sunny Sweeney and Kim Parent are all back, singing as superbly as ever. Newcomers Dianna Paul and Sherry Lynn prove that they are ready to run with the big dogs. From the folkier side of things are delightful discs by Ellis Paul and TV star Robert David Hall.

Longtime Fan Fair favorite Jimmy Kish, known as “The Flying Cowboy,” died in Nashville last Thursday at age 84. Mr. Kish was a guitarist, songwriter, publisher, actor, square-dance caller, radio personality and licensed pilot. He had a booth at the first Fan Fair celebration in 1972 and has been a fixture there ever since. Initially, […]

Country singer, Las Vegas headliner and former beauty-pageant queen Judy Lynn has died at age 74. Ms. Lynn recorded more than a dozen albums and had hit singles with such titles as “Footsteps of a Fool” (1962) and “My Secret” (1963). She was also renowned as the most flamboyantly costumed country star of her generation. […]